SACW | April 10-11, 2008 / Dump The Mullahs, Uphold Women's Rights; Music Has No Religion; Hindutva From Lab to Factory? ; Victims of the Bhopal Disaster; Pervez Radoo and Other Victims of the Intelligence Agencies

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | April 10-11, 2008 | 
Dispatch No. 2502 - Year 10 running

[1] Bangladesh:
    - Fascists turn violent to protest policy on women (news report)
    - Women's policy: What is the fuss about? (Hameeda Hossain)
    - Bangladesh retreats on women's rights after clerics protest
    - Gender equality should be upheld (Editorial, New Age)
[2] Pakistan: Where billions vanish (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
[3] Music has no religion or borders (Madanjeet Singh)
[4] India: The Hindutva Experiment: From Lab to Factory? (Mukul Dube)
[5] India: Who Would Wipe Professor Sanaullah Radoo's Tears ? (Subhash Gatade)
[6] India: Abandoned to their fate - Victims of 
the Bhopal disaster are still campaiging for 
justice (Indra Sinha)
[7] 'The question of Tibet' (Editorial, The 
Hindu) and Letter to the Editor, The Hindu (Sonia 
Jabbar, Madhu Sarin, et al)
[8] Announcements:
(i) Safdar Hashmi's Birth Anniversary as 20th 
National Street Theatre Day (New Delhi,12 April, 
2008)
(ii) Sixth Annual Winter Course on Forced 
Migration (Calcutta, 1-15, December 2008)

______


[1]

The Daily Star
April 11, 2008

BIGOTS FIGHT FIERCELY WITH COPS TO PROTEST WOMEN POLICY
50 including 10 policemen injured
Staff Correspondent

Activists of Anti-Quran Law Resistance Committee 
torch a motorbike of a law enforcement agency 
near Baitul Mukarram National Mosque during 
clashes with police yesterday. Photo: Anisur 
Rahman

The surrounding areas of Baitul Mukarram National 
Mosque turned into a battlefield yesterday when 
members of an Islamic organisation clashed with 
police leaving over 50 injured including 10 
policemen and 15 pedestrians.

Witnesses said the hour-long clash started around 
2:15pm when police resisted about 500 activists 
of Anti-Quran Law Resistance Committee attempting 
to march towards the office of the chief adviser 
in a procession after holding a rally on the 
mosque premises.

Khelafat Majlish and Islami Shashontantra Andolan 
recently formed the Anti-Quran Law Resistance 
Committee to protest against the National Women 
Development Policy approved by the advisers' 
council recently.

"As police halted their progress, the agitating 
activists started pelting them with brickbats and 
broke through the police ring," said pedestrian 
Mostofa Kamal who took shelter near the mosque 
during the clash.

Fifteen pedestrians including two children Shaon, 
12, and Badhon, 9, were injured.

Employees of nearby shop Mithu Carpets said, 
"When police locked the gate at the north side, 
the activists came through other gates and 
attacked police with bamboo sticks and brickbats."

At one stage, police resorted to charging 
truncheons and firing teargas canisters to 
disperse them. Police used around 10 teargas 
shells.

During the clash, the activists set fire to two 
motorbikes of law enforcers and damaged over 10 
vehicles including two sports utility vehicles of 
the Islamic Foundation and the Ministry of 
Religious Affairs.

Chases and counter chases took place between the police and the activists.

Other witnesses said all business establishments 
were closed for three hours due to repeated 
attacks of the activists.

The injured activists and pedestrians received 
treatment from Dhaka Medical College Hospital, 
Suhrawardy Hospital and different clinics in the 
area while the policemen were treated at 
Rajarbagh Police Hospital.

Farid Uddin Ahmed, officer-in-charge (OC) of 
Paltan Police Station, told The Daily Star, "The 
unruly attackers injured several policemen, 
including Assistant Commissioner [AC] Pankaj Roy."

He said they would take legal action against 
those who were involved in the offence.

Two units of Fire Service and Civil Defence 
rushing to the spot to douse the burning 
motorbikes could not do their jobs as the 
Anti-Quran Law Resistance Committee activists 
attacked them and chased them away.

People who went to the mosque for Zohr prayers were stuck inside the mosque.

Vehicular movement in the area came to a halt 
during the clash and created gridlocks on nearby 
streets which had a knock-on effect on traffic 
situation on other parts of the city.

Before the clash, the Anti-Quran Law Resistance 
Committee held a rally on the mosque ground where 
they demanded resignation of Rasheda K Chowdhury, 
adviser to the caretaker government.

Terming the National Women Development Policy an 
anti-Islamic law, they threatened the government 
of toppling it if it did not amend the policy.

After the clash, the organisation held a press 
conference at the office of Khelafat Majlish. 
They claimed police prevented them from carrying 
out their peaceful activities and injured over 
100 activists.

Maulana Abdur Rob Yusufi, Nayeb-e-Amir of 
Khelafat Majlish, spoke at the press conference 
among others.

o o o

The Daily Star
April 6, 2008

WOMEN'S POLICY: WHAT IS THE FUSS ABOUT?

by Hameeda Hossain

WHY so much noise about a policy which does no 
more than reaffirm commitments of earlier 
documents? The protests by a few religious 
clerics surrounding the declaration of the policy 
by the chief advisor give rise to suspicions of 
political machinations. The responses of some 
members of the advisory council also suggest, at 
the least, a lack of cohesiveness or coordination 
in decision making by the Council of Advisors. 
These events have diverted us from considering 
the content of the policy and its continuity with 
previous state commitments, and from formulating 
an action plan.

Let us first dissect the protests, which started 
a few days before the announcement. How is it 
that the ulema were threatening street action, 
using the mosque to incite hatred against the 
government and against women, even before they 
had seen the policy? Their claim was that the 
policy provided for equal rights to inheritance, 
and thus violated religious norms and codes. The 
protests have continued even after the policy has 
been published and made available, and after it 
is quite clear that it makes no reference to 
inheritance laws!

Islam is a religion of peace. And yet the ulema 
are deliberately breaking the peace by use of 
vituperative language and seditious threats of 
"civil war." An ever-ready madrassah brigade has 
been summoned into street action and, what is 
even more surprising, the Khatib of Baitul 
Mukaram mosque seems to have forgotten his 
official responsibilities. We are familiar with 
similar forms of destabilisation used in the past.

In 1961, for example, the ulema supported the 
right-wing parties in opposing the Muslim Family 
Laws Ordinance. The government, at that time, 
took a strong stand against the trouble makers, 
and the law has remained on our statute books for 
four decades and is in daily use throughout the 
country, benefiting millions of men, women and 
children in the process. The uniformity of 
messages emanating from khutbas in certain 
mosques, their instigation to political rallies, 
and the op-eds in the right-wing media suggest 
considerable planning behind the scenes.

So, we need to figure out, is all this really 
about a rejection of a national commitment to 
gender equality? Is it really about any threat to 
religion or religious practice? Or is it 
something more calculated, and intended to serve 
the interests of certain groups -- is it merely a 
diversionary tactic from the political movement 
for the trial of war criminals, or just another 
way of mounting a further challenge to the 
present government?

We presume that the caretaker government follows 
some official procedures for collective decision 
making, and that, when the chief advisor 
announced the policy on March 8, it had already 
been discussed and approved by the council. Does 
this imply that the chief advisor has gone back 
on the previous decision taken collectively by 
the council. Or have the four advisors acted on 
their own initiative to visit the Islamic 
Foundation, offer apologies and set up a "review 
committee." What is the validity of any decisions 
taken by such a committee?

There is nothing new in the policy itself, and, 
in fact, these commitments had been made earlier 
in the Constitution, in CEDAW, in the Beijing 
Plan of Action, the MDG and NSRP. Let us examine 
what the policy says.

Section 1 of the policy reviews official 
decisions and commitments to women's equality.

Section 2 lists the purpose and aims of the 
policy to ensure equality, security, empowerment, 
human rights, to address poverty of women, 
recognise their economic and social 
contributions, facilitate participation in public 
decision making and access to education, health 
and skill development, and protection for 
vulnerable women. These aims have never been in 
dispute, and different ministries have been 
mandated since the early seventies to implement 
programs in accordance with them.

Section 3 reiterates implementation of CEDAW 
through review and reform of laws, prevention of 
misuse of laws or misinterpretation of religion 
contrary to women's interests, creation of 
awareness of rights, identification of children 
by both parents, including in voter identity 
cards. (It is unfortunate that the Election 
Commission has failed to observe this government 
rule, and women voters have been identified by 
their spouses.)

Sections 4 and 5 refer to legal and policy 
deterrents to violence against women.

Sections 7, 8, 12 and 13 refer to expanding 
access to education, health and shelter or 
housing, to creating opportunities for 
participation in sports and culture.

Section 9 recognises women's economic 
contribution, the need for expanding 
opportunities, and eliminating gender 
discrimination; it also refers to the need for 
safety nets and other facilities for working 
women. Political participation is to be 
facilitated through directly held elections to 
reserved seats in Parliament, and lateral entry 
of women in public services, diplomatic services, 
maintaining quotas in public employment. In 
acknowledging the government's responsibility for 
implementing the policy, section 17 reiterates 
provisions for monitoring mechanisms, which have 
already been in place.

The rightist frenzy is apparently over the right 
to property, which is referred to in section 9.13 
as providing for "equal rights to and control 
over all moveable and immoveable property 
acquired through the market." This is a statement 
of the law as it stands in Bangladesh, and is not 
a re-statement of it or any advance! At least, 
that is true in theory. In practice, many women 
are deprived of their legal share in family 
property, and have little access to commercial 
loans, etc.

It is difficult to see the rationale for the 
objection to this section. And it is even more 
difficult to understand what drove the four 
advisors to go to the ulema if they had already 
read the policy and were aware of its provisions. 
Consultations on policy matters are a good 
precedent, but only when they are held in a 
rational atmosphere, and with constituencies that 
are to be directly affected by such policies. The 
National Policy for Women's Development is an 
outcome of a national consensus on the need to 
eliminate gender inequality and to ensure women's 
advancement so that they can contribute more 
effectively to economic and social development.

The government's energy should now be directed to 
work out time-lined action plans, and allocate 
budgetary support. Ministries need to be mandated 
with specific goals and targets, which can be 
monitored effectively. It is time that 
governments stand by their words and make sure 
that equality and non-discrimination are 
maintained as guidelines for laws, policies and 
programs of action. Bangladesh needs to move 
forward into thefuture. Let us not forget that 
women's labour today sustains the Bangladesh 
economy, women's social capital maintains family 
well being. Recognising their rights will be a 
step in furthering their effective contribution 
to society.


Hameeda Hossain is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.

o o o

BANGLADESH RETREATS ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS AFTER CLERICS PROTEST

Mar 12, 2008

DHAKA (AFP) - Bangladesh's military-backed 
government has backed down from a policy to 
ensure equal property rights to women amid angry 
protests by Muslim clerics that the move would 
override Islamic law.

The country's law minister Hasan Arif said the 
government "does not have any plan to enact any 
laws that goes against the Koran and the 
traditions of Prophet Mohammad," a government 
statement said.

Arif gave the assurance to top Islamic clerics 
and scholars late on Tuesday, after Islamic 
groups warned of nationwide protests, saying they 
would not tolerate any law that went against 
sharia, the Islamic law code.

Sharia is based on the teachings of the Koran, 
prescribing both religious and secular duties, 
from prayer to alms-giving, as well as penalties 
for law-breaking. There are many interpretations 
of the sharia.

The clerics' complaints followed a new government 
policy announced last week which stated women 
should have equal property rights.

Bangladesh, whose population is 90 percent 
Muslim, has a secular legal system but in matters 
related to inheritance and marriage Muslims 
follow sharia law.

Sharia practised in Bangladesh's inheritance law 
generally stipulates that a girl would inherit 
half of what her brother gets. Women groups have 
long protested against the disparity and demanded 
equal rights.

The minister's comments came after Islamist 
parties and top clerics called protests across 
the country this Friday against what they called 
"laws against Islam."

The leader of the group Mufti Fazlul Haq Amini 
said that despite the government's assurances 
they would go ahead with protests until the 
"anti-sharia" provisions were officially dropped.

"The new government policy has mentioned there 
would be equal property rights for women which is 
directly against Islam and the holy Koran. We 
will not tolerate anything that goes against the 
sharia," he told AFP on Wednesday.

The government had shown "scant regard" for the country's Muslims, he said.

But Shirin Akhter, head of one of the largest 
women's groups in the country, said she hoped the 
government would ignore the criticism.

"The policy spells out clearly that women should 
have equal rights to property, which includes 
inheritance. Our hope is that the government does 
not get distracted by any so-called religious 
group," Akhter, president of Working Women, said.

o o o

New Age
March 9, 2008

Editorial
GENDER EQUALITY SHOULD BE UPHELD

Our failure as a nation to ensure equal rights 
for women as for men in all spheres and at all 
levels is, we believe, a cause for great 
disappointment and collective shame. While there 
is no doubt that we have taken some measures 
towards gender equity since our national 
independence, there still remains much left to be 
done. Even to this day, our country does not have 
uniform inheritance laws for all Bangladeshis 
that give women equal entitlement as men and nor 
can a Bangladeshi woman pass down her nationality 
to her children. In our view, unless such 
discrepancies in our laws are addressed to put an 
end to manifest discrimination against women, we 
will never be and cannot claim to be a modern, 
civilised and democratic state. In this regard, 
we appreciate the policy decision of the 
incumbents to revisit the issue of inheritance 
and to bring about uniform laws which will apply 
to all Bangladeshis irrespective of their 
religious affiliation or beliefs and ensure that 
women have equal entitlement to property as men. 
We hope that the government will its policy to 
reality by way of getting the relevant laws 
amended and enforcing them properly.

    However, it is extremely disappointing, though 
not at all surprising, that at a time when the 
government is apparently considering steps to 
reduce discrimination against women in our laws 
and customs, some obscurantist organisations have 
come together under the banner of 'Islami 
Uttaradhikar Ain Shanrakkhan Andolan' to protest 
and resist the government's attempts to promote 
gender equality. A few hundred obscurantists on 
Friday staged demonstrations in front of the 
Baitul Mukarram National Mosque to condemn what 
it termed the 'western idea of gender equality.' 
The organisations that joined the protest rally 
include the Islami Shashantantra Andolan, Hizbut 
Tahrir Bangladesh, Islami Chatra Andolan and 
Khelafat Majlish. The activists have also warned 
the government of 'dire consequences', if it 
proceeds with its plans.

    We believe that there is nothing 'western' 
about the idea of ensuring equal rights for all 
human beings, irrespective of gender or other 
characteristics and differences. Rather, it is 
not only unjust but inhumane to promote or 
protect the marginalisation of certain groups on 
the basis of such things as gender, ethnicity, 
religion and ability - physical or financial. 
Bigotry should find no space in our society. 
Hence, we urge the current regime to pay no heed 
to the demands of the obscurantists. Instead, it 
should stick to its plans and prove its 
commitment to equity and social justice by 
bringing necessary changes to laws that are 
inherently discriminatory towards women.

______


[2]

Dawn
9 April 2008

WHERE BILLIONS VANISH

by Pervez Hoodbhoy

GEN (retd) Pervez Musharraf, aided by his trusted 
lieutenant and chairman of the Higher Education 
Commission, Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, lays claim to a 
'revolutionary programme' that has reversed the 
decades-old decline of Pakistan's universities.

The higher education budget shot up from Rs3.9bn 
in 2001-02 to an astounding Rs33.7bn in 2006-07. 
But, in fact, much of this has been consumed by 
futile projects and mega wastage. Fantastically 
expensive scientific equipment, bought for 
research, often ends up locked away in campuses.

An example: a Pelletron accelerator worth Rs400m 
was ordered in 2005 with HEC funds. It eventually 
landed up at Quaid-i-Azam University, and was 
installed last month by a team of Americans from 
the National Electrostatics Corporation that flew 
in from Wisconsin. But now that it is there and 
fully operational, nobody - including the current 
director - has the slightest idea of what 
research to do with it. Its original proponents 
are curiously lacking in enthusiasm and are 
quietly seeking to distance themselves from the 
project.

Now for the full story: in his article published 
in Dawn (June 25, 2005), Dr Atta-ur-Rahman 
announced the HEC would fund a '5MW Tandem 
Accelerator' for nuclear physics research with an 
associated laboratory at Quaid-i-Azam University. 
It was shocking news. First, nowhere in the world 
of science is a major project approved without a 
detailed technical feasibility study, and without 
full participation of those scientists who would 
be expected to use it for their research.

Second, this machine - whose original form dates 
back to the 1940s - had long become practically 
useless for decent nuclear physics research. 
Whereas it can still be used in certain narrow 
sub-areas of materials science and biology, to my 
knowledge there are almost no active researchers 
in those specialties anywhere in Pakistan.

Immediately upon reading Dr Atta-ur-Rahman's 
article, I telephoned him. His answer: Dr. 
Riazuddin, director of the National Centre for 
Physics, had approved the machine. That was 
stunning! The soft-spoken and diffident Dr 
Riazuddin, at 77 years of age, is not only 
Pakistan's best nuclear and particle physicist, 
but also a man of great integrity. How could he 
have agreed to such folly? Why did he sign a 
flaky PC-1 proposal put together in less than an 
afternoon?

The answer was to come soon. On Sept 8, 2005, a 
nation-wide meeting was held in the physics 
department of Quaid-i-Azam University to look 
into the possible uses of the Pelletron. But the 
project's proponents clearly had something else 
in mind, and probably not a work plan. They 
bussed in supporters who filled the auditorium. 
Most had no clue of what a Pelletron was but they 
seemed to have had instructions to hoot down all 
who questioned the need to buy one.

And so, when Dr Riazuddin expressed his 
reservations, and sorrowfully admitted to having 
signed the PC-1 under pressure, the assembled 
crowd burst into taunts and jeers. Some demanded 
that he resign as director. It was depressing to 
see Pakistan's best scientist and a decent man 
thus humiliated.

The sad part of this story is not that the 
machine has arrived, but that in the intervening 
30 months the original proponents gave no thought 
to making use of it or to assembling a group of 
scientists who could be persuaded to do research 
using the Pelletron. Still sadder, a second 
Pelletron was purchased, again with HEC money, 
for Government College University Lahore. No one 
can fathom what to do with it either.

The equipment fetish can be followed all the way 
to the much-advertised HEJ Institute for 
Chemistry. HEJ consumes the lion's share of 
research funding in Pakistan today and boasts of 
the finest and most expensive equipment. For 
example, even good chemistry departments in the 
US rarely have more than one or two NMR 
spectrometers but the HEJ Institute has 12. Well, 
why not, if that is the price of excellence? 
Aren't the 3,000+ research papers proof of public 
money well spent?

The answer is, no. There is little evidence to 
support HEJ's claim that it has strongly impacted 
the Pakistani pharmaceutical industry. Readers 
may have more luck than I did in searching the 
otherwise elaborate HEJ website for its role in 
discovering new drugs or processes. But without 
this, all else is hot air. Only one international 
patent, registered in the UK and Germany, is 
listed. Two processes are mentioned as submitted 
for a US patent. This is not a high record for an 
institution that has been in existence for over 
40 years and claims to be world-class. A good US 
or European applied science university department 
typically files several patents every year.

As for the thousands of HEJ research papers, the 
question is how many of these really matter? A 
paper is considered important by other scientists 
only when it contains new ideas or facts. 
Significant papers are cited frequently in 
professional journals. But an overwhelming number 
of HEJ publications, which are largely based upon 
routine aspects of natural products chemistry, 
have zero or few citations. The reader may find 
citation counts by accessing the free database 
scholar.google.com, or other more comprehensive 
databases.

My point is not to denigrate the HEJ, or other 
academic research in Pakistan, but to make the 
case that such research is consuming a 
disproportionate amount of resources at the cost 
of a desperately impoverished educational system. 
The real problem is that Pakistani students in 
government schools, colleges, and universities - 
as well as their teachers - are far below 
internationally acceptable levels in terms of 
basic subject understanding.

Current salaries militate against improvement. As 
a result of Dr Atta's determined intervention, a 
professor at a government university can earn up 
to Rs325,000 per month but a government school 
teacher has a maximum salary of less than 
Rs10,000. This is highly unwise. Similarly, 
funds-starved government colleges and schools 
lack basic infrastructure such as laboratories 
and libraries but most government universities 
are awash in so much money that they do not know 
what to do with it. At QAU, for example, so many 
air-conditioners have been purchased with HEC 
research funds that the electricity bill has shot 
up by 50 times over the last six years.

A balance is desperately needed. Instead of 
over-funding universities and research, we need 
to focus resources on creating good quality 
schools and colleges. We need to encourage 
creative and skilled people to become school and 
college teachers, and for this we need to pay 
them well. We need teachers who can educate young 
people into becoming good citizens and with 
skills valued in the economy, and who can train 
the few going on to higher education.

The winds of change are blowing across the 
country. The Musharraf years are over. It is now 
time for parliament to carry out a full and 
complete public inquiry into the irresponsible 
and crazy policies that have hitherto been the 
hallmark of decision-making. Finally, there is a 
chance to reset priorities and use resources for 
a comprehensive reform of our education system.

The author is chairman of the physics department at Quaid-i-Azam University.



______


[3]


The Hindu
April 11, 2008

MUSIC HAS NO RELIGION

by Madanjeet Singh

Fundamentalists and fanatics are barking up the 
wrong tree. Never ever has any obstruction or 
suppression of culture stopped the arts and music 
from transcending national boundaries.


[Photo caption] HARBINGERS OF SANITY: Salman 
Ahmad and Falu.secular artists are increasingly 
stepping forward to uphold multicultural ideals.

"Music has no religion - like water, air and fire 
- and it connects the world, rather than divide," 
declared Salman Ahmad, the founder of the 
Sufi-rock band of Pakistani musicians. He 
denounced the culture of intolerance and asserted 
that his music has been enriched because he 
worked with renowned musicians throughout the 
world. A devotee of the Islamic mystical 
tradition of Sufism, Salman believes in 
humanity's oneness with the divine, and has 
furthered that vision in his lyrics by making the 
Junoon band a voice for peace and international 
understanding. Like the Bhakti-Sufi music 
patronised by Khwaja Moinuddin Chist who founded 
the Chistiyya order in Ajmer, Junoon invokes the 
necessary ideological support to Salman's musical 
mission to bring about emotional integration of 
the people worldwide.

The multicultural and pluralist culture of India, 
which became a catalyst for the interaction 
between the traditional and modern music of 
today, may be credited to a number of male and 
female Bhakti saints - Mahavira, Kabir, Chisti, 
Nanak, and Mirabai, among others - poets and 
musicians from all walks of life and religions. 
With the advent of Vedanta (end of the Vedas), 
also called the Upanishads, during the 10th-11th 
centuries, the intellectual basis for the Bhakti 
(devotion) movement was mainly provided by the 
great Hindu theologian and philosopher Ramanuja. 
Several, often contradictory, schools of thought 
arose, representing an unprecedented diversity in 
beliefs spanning monotheism, polytheism, and 
atheism. In the Nyaya-Sutras, the overwhelming 
focus is on rational and scientific thinking and 
analysis that emphasises human understanding as 
natural phenomena and physical processes 
occurring in nature.

However, it was not until Khwaja Moinuddin Chist 
(A.D. 1141-1230) arrived in India and promoted 
music and dance in centres called khanqah that a 
new composite culture of syncretism began to 
develop. Chisti skilfully combined the notions of 
Bhakti devotion with Sufi mysticism in order 
fully to assimilate India's multicultural 
plurality. These cultural centres gradually 
developed into gharanas, a system of social 
organisation in which groups of musicians are 
linked by lineage or apprenticeship and who 
adhere to a particular musical style. The 
gharanas also served as the cradle of Indian 
classical music. The phirat or 'free run' of the 
classical music, Raag, was devised and sung for 
the first time by Ustad Bade Mohammad Khan at the 
Gwalior gharana. Another stalwart, Ustad Mubarak 
Ali Khan, is credited with the invention of the 
dohri or dugun ki phirat.

The interfaith lyrics that Guru Nanak Dev 
(1469-1539) composed were based on both his Hindu 
and Muslim mentors - Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas, and 
Sheikh Farid. Sikh tradition has it that at the 
age of 30 Nanak Dev would say no more than 
repeating: "There is no Hindu. There is no 
Muslim." Accompanied by Mardana, a Muslim rabab 
player, and another colleague Bala, a Hindu, 
Nanak travelled extensively in India and abroad, 
as far as Mecca and Baghdad.

Today Ravi Shankar embodies this marvellous 
tradition. He was born into a Hindu Brahmin 
family in Bangladesh and studied under Allaudin 
Khan (1862-1972), the founder of the Maihar 
gharana of Indian classical music. Ravi Shankar 
married his guru's daughter, the sister of Ali 
Akbar Khan, a famous player of sarod. The Indian 
sitar is said to have been invented by Amir 
Khusrau (1253-1325), a devotee of the Chistiyya 
order, after the Persian 'Setar', from the saz 
group of musical instruments. The international 
cultural connotation is also evident from the 
Persian musical ensemble, rabab, sarod, sarangi 
and tabla, which became an integral part of South 
Asian musical instruments.

In Bangladesh, Ravi Shankar was inspired by the 
Baul tradition that is a unique heritage of 
Bengali folk music. Bauls are wandering minstrels 
and itinerant singers who do not belong to any 
religious denomination. The lonely Baul roams 
places, trying endlessly to find his identity 
through music, devotion, and love. Their songs 
invoke traditions that can be interpreted as a 
revolt against the conventions and bindings of 
established religions. They believe that the 
'spirit' does not reside in an unknown heaven but 
instead can be traced within us through love and 
compassion for one other. In the Proclamation 
issued by UNESCO in 2005, Baul traditional songs 
were included in the 'Masterpieces of the Oral 
and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.'

Aware of the growing threat of Islamic 
fundamentalism to the Bengali secular folk and 
classical music, Ravi Shankar, together with his 
friend Paul Harrison, organised 'The Concert for 
Bangladesh' at the United Nations headquarters in 
1971. He also played with Yehudi Menuhin and 
attempted to synchronise South Asian and Western 
music, as Salman's band Junoon is doing at 
present alongside international artists like 
Alicia Keys, Melissa Etheridge, and Annie Lennox.

Supporters of the Taliban and other Islamic 
extremists groups consider music to be their main 
enemy. They have attacked music-related shops and 
cultural institutions. DVD and CD shops were 
banned and became the targets of hardcore 
militants' homemade bombs. They championed 
General Zia-ul-Haq's Islamist legacy of 
fundamentalism in Pakistan. The military dictator 
tried his best to suffocate Pakistan's 
traditional Sufi culture by emulating Saudi 
Arabia's Wahhabi Islam. He banned all forms of 
cultural activity, including figurative painting, 
singing, dancing, and music, categorising them as 
blasphemous. The extremity of his Islamic 
fanaticism is shown by his ban on the staging of 
the all-time classic 'Heer Ranjha' by the 
renowned freedom fighter and theatre personality, 
Sheila Bhatia, and her troupe. The ban was on the 
ground that "Islam does not permit a show where 
Heer would be enacted by a woman."

The most effective harbingers of sanity today are 
the secular artists increasingly stepping forward 
to uphold the multicultural ideals. Several 
groups in the genre of Sufi-rock groups have 
recently sprung up in South Asia. Among them is 
Falu, a Bombay-born singer whose formidable vocal 
style complements a mix of Indian classical and 
alt-rock, and Jeet's band of musicians called 
Singh, which combines rock with Indian music. The 
band of Pakistani singer Abrar-ul-Huq was cheered 
and applauded by young people at Trafalgar Square 
in London as he sang to a massive crowd.

In 2006, the South Asia Foundation (SAF) invited 
40 performing artists from the eight SAARC 
countries - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, 
India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri 
Lanka - who put up a spectacular show at UNESCO 
House in Paris on the theme, Oral and Intangible 
Heritage of South Asia. India's foremost ghatam 
player, Vikku Vinayakaram, and the famous Sufi 
singer from Pakistan, Saeen Zahoor, were 
clamorously applauded. Zahoor learned kalams of 
poets like Bulleh Shah and lyrics of Rumi from 
his guru, the Indian Sufi Ustad Raunka Ali of 
Patiala. Born and raised in Okara, a village, 
Zahoor became a 'street singer' performing for 
decades at Sufi dargahs, shrines, and festivals 
in Pakistan and India. The international 
community discovered him in 1989, when he 
performed his first concert on stage, and he is 
now world-famous.

The highlight of the opening of the Institute of 
Kashmir Studies in Srinagar on May 26, 2008, will 
be a performance by Junoon, led by Salman Ahmad, 
and the Singhs band of Jeet Singh. They do not 
subscribe to the notion of "art for art's sake." 
Junoon recently performed at the Nobel ceremony 
in Oslo, in honour of the winners of this year's 
Nobel Peace Prize, Al Gore and Rajendra Pachauri. 
The acoustic Sufi music concert was dedicated to 
the lawyer's movement in Pakistan, the 
restoration of the Supreme Court judges, and the 
independence of the judiciary. It was yet another 
landmark in support of Pakistan's civil society, 
media, students, and rights activists who have 
heroically protested against authoritarianism. 
Like the western rock stars such as Sting, George 
Clooney, Brad Pitt, Bono, and Bob Geldof, who are 
supporting worthy campaigns - against poverty, 
disease, vanishing rainforests - Junoon music is 
an antidote to religious extremism and terrorism. 
Salman Ahmad was designated a U.N. Special 
Representative for HIV- AIDS.

As a prelude to the shape of things to come, more 
than a million people participated on the eve of 
Pakistan's recent general elections in the 
commemoration at Pakpattan village of the 
anniversary of a Sufi saint from the Punjab. 
Waleed Ziad, a Pakistani economist who attended 
the feast, described the pageantry of dance, 
poetry, music, and prayer. He noted that 
religious life in Pakistan has traditionally been 
synonymous with the gentle spirituality of Sufi 
mysticism, the traditional pluralistic core of 
Islam. Even in remote rural areas, spiritual life 
centres not on doctrinaire seminaries but on Sufi 
shrines. Recreation revolves around ostentatious 
wedding parties, Hollywood, Bollywood, Lollywood, 
and Pollywood in the North West Frontier Province.

'Peshawar Spring' is how the people of NWFP have 
jubilantly called the victory of the secular and 
liberal Awami National Party, founded by Khan 
Abdul Ghaffar Khan. "We Pushtuns are the children 
of Badshah Khan's progressive thoughts and 
ideals," declared Asfandyar Wali Khan, a grandson 
of the 'Frontier Gandhi,' as thousands of people 
took to the streets and bazaars, dancing Punjabi 
Bhangra and playing local Pashtun folk music. 
Thousands of bus drivers once again slipped 
cassettes or CDs into the stereo players of their 
decorated vehicles.

Indeed, fundamentalist and archaic politicians 
are barking up the wrong tree. Never ever has any 
obstruction or suppression of culture stopped the 
arts and music from transcending national 
boundaries. Nor is there any question of this 
happening in a globalised world of new 
technologies, the market economy, individualism, 
diversity, pluralism, and mobility - the markers 
of 21st-century life.

(Madanjeet Singh, diplomat and philanthropist, is 
a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and Founder Trustee 
of the South Asia Foundation.)

______


[5]

Mainstream,
15 March 2008

THE HINDUTVA EXPERIMENT: FROM LAB TO FACTORY?

by Mukul Dube

In the months and years following the Gujarat 
genocide of 2002, many from the camp of Hindutva 
characterised that province as the "laboratory" 
where an "experiment" had been carried out. They 
proclaimed that the success of the experiment 
meant that the process could be replicated in 
other parts of the country so as to achieve their 
ultimate goal, a "Hindu Rashtra".

Such talk became restrained after the defeat of 
the NDA in the general election of 2004, but it 
did not cease. Since then, every success of the 
BJP and its allies has led to its resurgence. Not 
surprisingly, Narendra Modi's victory in the 
recent Assembly election in Gujarat brought about 
elation in the ranks of the Sangh Parivar: for 
they could claim that the success of the original 
laboratory experiment had been shown to be 
lasting and to have defied the "anti-incumbency 
factor" as well as apparent divisions within the 
Hindu Right in Gujarat.

The genocide of 2002 has been described, and most 
convincingly, as state sponsored. It was not just 
that the state apparatus of Gujarat either looked 
away while the mobs rampaged, or else aided and 
guided the mobs, or even on occasion itself 
became part of the mob: what was crucial was that 
the federal Indian state, whose capital is Delhi, 
gave the State of Gujarat and its mobs the 
freedom and the time to loot, kill, rape and 
pillage.

In power in Delhi at the time was a coalition led 
by the ideological kith and kin of those who were 
in absolute power in Gujarat. Not only did the 
elders of the Sangh Parivar fail to use the 
considerable powers vested in them by the 
Constitution of India, they brazenly lied in 
Parliament. The key functionary, the Home 
Minister-who by then was also the Deputy Prime 
Minister-said that Narendra Modi was "in control 
of the situation". The real meaning of this was 
not lost on many: what Advani meant was, "Our 
boys are in control and we will let them get on 
with the job." The media coverage, which caused 
so much anguish across the land, only made the 
hearts of the Hindutva beasts swell with pride. 
The Opposition in Parliament could do nothing.

That Opposition has been, since 2004, the UPA 
alliance which has ruled India from Delhi. Before 
the general election, the Congress, its leading 
partner, made loud noises about bringing Gujarat 
back to the path of secularism and about righting 
the wrongs done to such a large number of 
Gujaratis. Once in power, though, it looked the 
other way while things in Gujarat remained as 
they were and, in some respects, became worse. 
Possibly the most glaring instance of this was 
the repeal of POTA, which was a token repeal in 
that it was not retrospective and in that the 
people who had been arrested under that law, 
almost all able-bodied, earning Muslims, continue 
to languish in the prisons of Gujarat without 
trial while their families starve.

SEVERAL commentators have described Gujarat as 
being, in effect, no longer a part of India. It 
is a rogue state which has achieved the 
distinction of becoming a "Hindu rajya". There is 
much truth in this. However, the rest of India 
remains notionally secular and the coalition in 
power in Delhi describes itself as secular. What 
is alarming in these circumstances is the 
persistence and rise of Hindutva bigotry in 
several parts of the country. It would be 
understandable if discrimination and violence 
against Muslims and Christians were limited to 
States ruled by BJP governments: but such 
discrimination and violence continue to be seen 
even in States in which the BJP is not in power. 
Certainly they have not become less in the nearly 
four years of UPA rule.

Most people attribute this to the "soft Hindutva" 
of the Congress and its allies. More than 
anything else, this seems to refer to fear of 
alienating the Hindu voter. The fallacy in this 
line of thought is that it implicitly accepts the 
Sangh Parivar's claim to represent all Hindus. It 
equates criticism of Hindutva with an attack on 
Hinduism.

A more rational and convincing explanation can be 
found by looking at the past. Two things which 
had long been known were brought sharply into 
focus sixty years ago when M.K. Gandhi was 
assassinated. One was the large numbers of RSS 
sympathisers-and perhaps some members-in the 
ranks of the Congress. The other was the extent 
to which the RSS had infiltrated not just the 
apparatus of state-police, administration, 
judiciary-but also all or most spheres of life 
which are ordinarily secular, that is, without 
any relation to religion.

It has been observed that the RSS thinks not of 
proximate goals but in the truly long term. It 
follows a policy of "Catch 'Em Young" and begins 
to mould individuals when they are scarcely more 
than infants. The inculcation of the core ideas 
of Hindutva begins with the games that little 
children are made to play and the songs that they 
are made to sing. The "education" of those 
somewhat older, and that of adults, follows the 
same pattern:

seemingly normal, everyday, "natural" activities 
and remarks are the means by which minds are 
corrupted. Hindutva is pervasive, there is no 
part of life that it does not touch. The 
proliferation of Sangh Parivar branches-covering 
children, women, tribal peoples, culture, history 
and so on-is evidence of this.

The RSS and its ideology are now over eighty 
years old. It can be said that the work that was 
begun so many decades ago is now coming to 
fruition in that ideology is finally being 
expressed through violent action on an almost 
countrywide scale. If the phenomenon is seen as 
an on-going process, it becomes clear that 
violence can only increase.

Many people, including this writer, have argued 
that Gujarat 2002 was possible because the 
political wing of Hindutva ruled both in 
Gandhinagar and in Delhi. The persistence-and, 
indeed, the growth-of Hindutva in the period 
since the general election of 2004, suggest that 
that argument is limited and perhaps flawed. What 
we are seeing today may well be the repetition 
across the country of the successful experiment, 
promising lab processes being carried out on an 
industrial scale.

______


[5]

WHO WOULD WIPE PROFESSOR SANAULLAH RADOO'S TEARS ?

by Subhash Gatade

Professor Sanaullah Radoo, Principal of a Degree 
College in Sopore, Jammu-Kashmir still remembers 
the day when his youngest son Pervez had reached 
the airport in Srinagar in a hurry to catch the 
next Spice Jet flight to Delhi.(12 September 
2006). The moment the flight landed in Delhi, he 
had even made a call to his Abboo ( father in 
colloquial terms - as he used to fondly call him) 
informing him that he is rushing to get the 
boarding pass to the next connecting flight for 
Pune. Little did he could have any prenomition 
then that what was in store for him.

It has been more than nineteen months that Pervez 
is in detention and right now lodged in Jail no 
01, Ward no 01, Barrack no. 02, Tihar, Delhi. And 
as of now all his dreams to undertake research on 
the variety of rice found in Kashmir stands 
suspended. Young Pervez Ahmad Radoo, who had 
already finished his post-graduation in Zoology 
from Modern College in Pune was seeking admission 
to Ph.D. for which he was going to Pune.

In fact, the moment Pervez approached the airline 
staff to get his boarding pass at Delhi airport, 
he experienced that he has been surrounded by 
seven-eight people who held him firmly and took 
away his luggage and straightaway drove him to 
Lodhi Colony  Special Cell office. In a letter 
(Combat Law, March-April 2008) he provides 
details of the manner in which he was 'tortured 
and interrogated severly' and how he was 'beaten 
up ruthlessly' and was given 'electric shocks'.

If one were to believe Special Cell of the Delhi 
Police, Pervez was arrested on October 15, 2006 
from Azadpur Mandi in the city with "three kgs of 
RDX and Rs 10 lakh as hawala money along with 
other incriminating evidence" proving him to be a 
"Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist".

Professor Sanaullah has been running from pillar 
to post for the last around eighteen months so 
that his youngest son gets a 'fair trial' and 
comes out of jail unscathed and is able to resume 
his research work. The fact is that for around 
one month Professor did not know that Pervez has 
not landed in Pune rather he was in detention. He 
has also presented a memorandum to the National 
Commission on Minorities ( NCM) to press harder 
for their intervention. Mohammad Shafi Qureshi, 
Chairperson of NCM, who has looked into the case 
and has also written to the Delhi police was 
candid enough to share his views on the subject 
with a reporter ('Mail Today' , Delhi, March 6, 
2008 - NCM fights for release of J & K youth in 
Tihar) :

"It is hard to believe the police version when 
one sees the clean chits given by the police 
superintendent and additional district magistrate 
of Sopore, his native town, and from the local 
resident welfare association (RWA). Most 
importantly, the certificate given by Spicejet 
for the same day shows him as boarding the plane 
for Delhi from Srinagar and then also bound to 
travel further to Pune. These facts have been 
completely ignored by the Special Cell.'

Trying to control his tears Professor Sanaullah 
Radoo tells the reporter the manner in which 
police have turned a promising young scientiest 
into a 'bomb-man' 'He should be completing his 
research on a rice species in Kashmir valley, 
instead he is inside prison facing charges of 
terrorism.' He clearly says the police 'are 
lying'. He is also not sure whether his son would 
receive a fair trial or not and whether he has 
been provided an able prosecution to defend his 
case or not.

Pervez's jail diary, which has appeared in a 
section of the media, puts further light on his 
plight. In his letter asking to 'Save My Career, 
As I Am Innocent' he poignantly asks 'Am I not 
Indian, if I am Kashmiri. Why this 
discrimination. When tall claims are being made 
by the govt of India, by media, that before law 
all citizens are equal.'

Of course it would not be cliche to state that 
the story of the metamorphosis of a student of 
Zoology into a 'bomb-man' is not the only one of 
its kind. In fact not a day passes when one does 
not hear about the illegal detention of a youth 
from the minority community on some frivolous 
charges.

Just a day before 'Mail Today' carried the above 
mentioned story about Pervez, it had provided 
details of a case involving a 'terrorist' gutkha 
manufacturer getting bail ( Mail Today, March 5, 
2008). According to the report filed by Piyush 
Srivastava, ' Barely six months ago, 35 year old 
Imran Ismail Memon was termed as a terrorist, 
gangster, a hawala racketeer, a smuggler and a 
manufacturer of adulterated Gutkha.' Imran Ismail 
Memon, a resident of Thane in Maharashtra was 
arrested by the Rae Bareli police on August 25, 
2007. Police said he was part of a "terrorist 
module" and had started a "illegal and 
adulterated gutkha factory" as a cover-up to stay 
in the district. Lucknow bench of the Allahabad 
highcourt granted bail to him because of lack of 
evidence. It also added that ' the police could 
not even prove the power theft charge against 
him.'

May it be the case of Aftab Alam Ansari, an 
employee of the Calcutta Electricity Supply 
Corporation who was arrested on 27 th December 
2007 as 'main accused behind the serial blasts in 
no of courts in UP' or for that matter the case 
of a poor fruit vendor from Kashmir who was 
presented before the media as a 'prize catch' 
responsible for blasts on the eve of Diwali in 
Delhi two years back, it is clear to any 
layperson that with the ascendance of the Hindu 
right forces in the Indian polity and in the 
ambience which has been created the world over 
post 9/11 such targetting of innocents from the 
minority community has become all the more common.

All of us were witness to the travails of Aftab 
Alam Ansari who was tortured for 22 days that he 
spent in police custory after his arrest on 
December 27, 2007 in order to make him confess 
that he was Mukhtar alias Raju, resident of Malda 
district in West Bengal and had Rs. 6 crores in 
his bank account.

A biggest irony of the whole situation is that 
while terrorist acts committed by Hindutva 
organisations are not even reported or all 
attempts are done to cover them up, innocents 
from the minority community are apprehended 
claiming them to be associates of this or that 
dreaded terrorist organisation. The media which 
is supposed to be a watchdog of democracy also 
joins the malicious campaign where it has no 
qualms in calling all such people as terrorists 
rather than accused awaiting trial in court. It 
does not bother it that such trial by media is 
not only unethical but also violates the basic 
ethics of responsible and fair journalism.

To be very frank, this is not to condone any of 
such terrorist acts if they occur in any part of 
the country, rather one would want that the law 
of the land should be equally applicable in all 
such cases and it should not appear that it is 
favouring/targetting a particular community.

Things have reached such a pass that it would not 
be an exaggeration to say that it is a new trend 
where 'terrorisation' and 'stigmatisation' of the 
minority community is reaching menacing 
proportions. The pattern of mindless arrests for 
the sake of branding innocent persons as 
terrorists and resorting to relentless torture is 
coming under increasing scrutiny.  And it is 
quite natural that it is giving rise to 
perceptible anger all across the country.

Perhaps the recent decision of the UP government 
asking a retired judge to ascertain whether two 
persons arrested for the court blasts in state 
are indeed terrorists or not, is an indicator of 
the pressure governments are facing over repeated 
complaints that the state police is implicating 
Muslims as terrorists. The case involves the 
arrest of Khalid Mujahid and Tariq, claiming them 
to be members of Harkat-Ul-Jehadi (HUJI) who were 
implicated for executing the serial blasts that 
left 14 people dead. If one searches the record 
of the Jamia Tul-Salahat Madarsa in Jaunpur where 
Khalid use to teach, it tells us that not only he 
was present on the day (23 Nov) in the Madarsa 
but had also checked the copies of the 
students.The judge has been asked to cross-check 
the UP police story which says that Khalid landed 
in Lucknow in a bus on November 23 morning, met 
other accomplices, bought new cycles, planted 
bombs in Lucknow court premises and returned 
immediately to Jaunpur.

One can just go on narrating instances of the 
highhandedness of the police and the callousness 
of the polity in turning a blind eye towards 
continuous stigmatisation of a particular 
community.As already mentioned this is an 
understanding which has received a new boost in 
the aftermath of 9/11 and the 'war against 
terror' unleashed by the US regime, to further 
its imperialist ambitions.

Any impartial enquiry into the state of affairs 
would make it clear that the need of the hour is 
to understand that 'terrorism' cannot be the 
monopoly of a particular community. It is a 
product of the typical circumstances which 
societies encounter or find themselves in and the 
nature of the dominant or dominated forces in 
operation in those societies and their larger 
worldview.

There is no denying the fact that civil society 
at large at some level has accorded legitimacy to 
all such actions by the police. If that would not 
have been the case there would have a uproar at 
the national level when it was revealed that how 
'intelligence bureau operatives colluded with 
Delhi police to brand two of its own informers as 
dreaded terrorists'. It was sheer coincidence 
that the matter reached CBI which exposed the 
dark machinations of the dirty tricks brigade.

A writeup in Times of India 'IB, cops in murky 
frame-up' (By Sachin Parashar, New Delhi, 13 
September 2007) had presented all relevant 
details of the case.

     New Delhi: The CBI has found that 
Intelligence Bureau operatives colluded with 
Delhi Police special cell sleuths to 'plant' RDX 
on two youths who were arrested as 'Al Badr 
terrorists', TOI has learnt. The shocking 
conclusion comes a month after the agency told 
the Delhi High Court that the special cell's 
probe into the murky affair "didn't inspire 
confidence".

     Top CBI sources told TOI on Wednesday that 
the seized RDX appeared to have been planted on 
the two 'terrorists' Mohd Moarif Qamar and Irshad 
Ali. The agency will submit its report, which 
indicts officers of IB and Delhi Police special 
cell, to the court on October 24.

     While similar episodes in the past have hurt 
the credibility of the anti-terror agencies, this 
one stands out because it marks a rare instance 
where Intelligence Bureau operatives collaborated 
in the plot hatched by Delhi Police's special 
cell against its former informers.

Few months back one was witness to a furore over 
the violation of human rights and dignity of Dr 
Haneef in Australia. Thanks to the support 
provided by international media and human rights 
organisations and the concern expressed in the 
polity here, it did not take much time for either 
the Australian judiciary and executive to release 
Dr Haneef. We were also told then that our 
honourable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 
personally felt disturbed over the plight of Dr 
Haneef and could not sleep that night.

Perhaps it is high time that the honourable Prime 
Minister is told that 'Dr Haneef' is not just the 
name of doctor who was wrongly apprehended in 
Australia rather it is another name for a 
phenomenon which is quite rampant in this part of 
the earth.

And the case of Pervez Ahmad Radoo is one such 
important case which demands his immediate 
intervention. Such a move only can bring back the 
smile on Professor Sanaullah's face !


______


[6]


The Guardian
April 9, 2008

ABANDONED TO THEIR FATE

Victims of the Bhopal disaster are still 
campaiging for justice. Their suffering is 
emblematic of the struggle faced by huge numbers 
of Indians

by Indra Sinha

Wahid Khan, 72, blinded by the gas which spread 
over Bhopal from a pesticide plant owned by an 
Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation on 
December 2 1984. Photo: Corbis

At the end of January I was dining with an old 
friend, now one of India's top policemen. 
Intelligence, counter-terrorism, external 
threats, internal security, he'd done it all. He 
knew of my work with the Bhopal gas survivors, 
whom I'd accused successive Indian governments of 
betraying.

"Betrayal? Isn't that rather a strong word?"

"Well, what would you call selling out the 
Bhopalis for a pittance? Canning all medical 
studies into the effects of the gas? Letting 
Union Carbide leave Bhopal without cleaning its 
factory? Turning a blind eye while toxic waste 
leaks and poisons the local water supply? 
Ignoring a supreme court of India order to 
provide clean water? Beating up women and 
children who dared to ask why nothing had been 
done? Doing business with Dow Chemical while its 
wholly-owned subsidiary Carbide refuses to appear 
in court to face criminal charges? Conspiring to 
get Dow off the Bhopal hook in return for $1bn? 
All this while people are still sick, while 
hundreds of children are being born deformed? 
What part of this cannot be called betrayal?"

As we spoke, my Bhopali friends were preparing to 
walk 500 miles to Delhi for the second time in 
three years. After the last march they had sat 
for a fortnight on hunger strike before the 
government deigned to talk to them. The 
politicians had made plenty of promises but kept 
none, so the Bhopalis were about to walk again.

"Indra, Indra," replied my friend, when I was 
finally done. "Don't tell me you are really so 
naive. Politics isn't about social justice. It is 
about power."

It didn't used to be. Not entirely. Long marches 
and hunger strikes were the weapons of Mahatma 
Gandhi. His portraits still hang in Indian 
embassies, where his politics are nowadays an 
embarrassment.

Modern India is everything Gandhi loathed: a 
society of ephemera that worships money, cheap 
celebrity and expensive foreign goods. The poor 
have been abandoned, their memory obliterated by 
a deluge of commercials for share issues and 
cars. It is "anti-progress" (and thus 
unpatriotic) to mention the thousands driven from 
their homes by huge dams, the 150,000 farmers who 
have committed suicide over the last decade, the 
100,000 members of ethnic communities forcibly 
displaced by mining and steel corporations in a 
savage unreported war in the forests of central 
India. These poor have no share in India's new 
wealth, no voice and no powerful friends. When 
they get in the way of progress they can expect 
to be jailed, tortured, gang-raped or murdered. 
They are the victims of what Arundhati Roy has 
called "the most successful secessionist struggle 
ever waged in independent India - the secession 
of the middle and upper classes from the rest of 
the country."

Politicians may grit their teeth when Roy speaks 
(in Gujarat they organised a wholesale burning of 
The God of Small Things) but for the moment she 
and other prominent dissenters are protected by 
their fame. For how much longer? In the central 
Indian war zone, filing a news story could land 
you in jail. Or worse. A police phone call was 
intercepted. "If any journalists come to report," 
the district's senior officer was heard to say, 
"get them killed."

In my novel, Animal's People, a character asks: 
"When grief and pain turn to anger, when our rage 
is as useless as our tears, when those in power 
become blind, deaf and dumb in our presence, and 
the world's forgotten us, what then should we do? 
Must we put away anger, choke back our 
bitterness, and be patient, in the hope that 
justice will one day win? We have already been 
waiting 20 years. And when the government that is 
supposed to protect us manipulates the law 
against us, of what use then is the law? Must we 
still obey it, while our opponents twist it to 
whatever they please? It's no longer anger but 
despair that whispers, if the law is useless, 
does it matter if we go outside it? What else is 
left?"



______


[7]

The Hindu
March 26, 2008
Editorial

THE QUESTION OF TIBET

If you go by western media reports, the 
propaganda of the so-called 'Tibetan 
government-in-exile' in Dharamsala and the 
votaries of the 'Free Tibet' cause, or by the 
fulminations of Nancy Pelosi and the Hollywood 
glitterati, Tibet is in the throes of a mass 
democratic uprising against Han Chinese communist 
rule. Some of the more fanciful news stories, 
images, and opinion pieces on the 'democratic' 
potential of this uprising have been put out by 
leading western newspapers and television 
networks. The reality is that the riot that broke 
out in Lhasa on March 14 and claimed a confirmed 
toll of 22 lives involved violent, ransacking 
mobs, including 300 militant monks from the 
Drepung Monastery, who marched in tandem with a 
foiled 'March to Tibet' by groups of monks across 
the border in India. In Lhasa, the rioters 
committed murder, arson, and other acts of 
savagery against innocent civilians and caused 
huge damage to public and private property. The 
atrocities included dousing one man with petrol 
and setting him alight, beating a patrol 
policeman and carving out a fist-size piece of 
his flesh, and torching a school with 800 
terrorised pupils cowering inside. Visual images 
and independent eyewitness accounts attest to 
this ugly reality, which even compelled the Dalai 
Lama to threaten to resign. There was violence 
also in Tibetan ethnic areas in the adjacent 
provinces of Gansu and Sichuan, which, according 
to official estimates, took an injury toll of 
more than 700. Western analyses have linked these 
incidents to the March 10 anniversary of the 
failed 1959 Tibetan uprising, non-progress in the 
talks between the Dalai Lama's emissaries and 
Beijing, China's human rights record, and the 
Beijing Olympic Games, which will of course be 
held as scheduled from August 8 to 24.

Recent accounts, however, express unease and 
sadness over the containment of the troubles, the 
'large-scale,' if belated and politically slow, 
response by Beijing, and the 'brutal ease' with 
which the protests have been 'smothered'. In 
another context, say Pakistan under Pervez 
Musharraf, such a response would have been called 
exemplary restraint. As evidence accumulates, the 
realisation dawns that it is too much to expect 
any legitimate government of a major country to 
turn the other cheek to such savagery and 
breakdown of public order. So there is a shift in 
the key demand made on China: it must 'initiate' 
a dialogue with the Dalai Lama to find a 
sustainable political solution in Tibet.

But this is precisely what China has done for 
over three decades. The framework of the 
political solution is there for all to see. There 
is not a single government in the world that 
either disputes the status of Tibet; or does not 
recognise it as a part of the People's Republic 
of China; or is willing to accord any kind of 
legal recognition to the Dalai Lama's 
'government-in-exile.' This situation certainly 
presents a contrast to the lack of an 
international consensus on the legal status of 
Kashmir. Nevertheless, there remains a Tibet 
political question, represented by the ideology 
and politics of the Dalai Lama and the 
'independence for Tibet' movement, and it has an 
international as well as a domestic dimension.

This is an era of unprecedented development for 
the Chinese economy, which has grown at nearly 10 
per cent a year for three decades. Tibet itself 
is on an economic roll: it has sustained an 
annual growth rate of more than 12 per cent over 
the past six years and is now on a 13-14 per cent 
growth trajectory. A new politics of conciliation 
towards the Dalai Lama's camp has been shaped by 
this era, and since 2002, six rounds of 
discussion have taken place between the 
representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese 
government. The former have stated that the Dalai 
Lama's current approach is to "look to the future 
as opposed to Tibet's history to resolve its 
status vis-À-vis China," and that the crux of his 
'Middle Way' approach is to "recognise today's 
reality that Tibet is part of the People's 
Republic of China Š and not raise the issue of 
separation from China in working on a mutually 
acceptable solution for Tibet."

The real problem arises from two demands pressed 
by the Dalai Lama. The first is his concept of 
'high-level' or 'maximum' autonomy in line with 
the 'one country, two systems' principle. The 
Chinese government points out that this is 
applicable only to Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, 
and that the kind of autonomy that the Dalai Lama 
demanded in November 2005 cannot possibly be 
accommodated within the Chinese Constitution. 
Secondly, the 2.6 million Tibetans in the Tibet 
Autonomous Region (TAR), which constitutes 
one-eighth of China's territory, form only 40 per 
cent of the total population of Tibetans in 
China. The Chinese government makes the perfectly 
reasonable point that acceptance of the demand 
for 'Greater Tibet' or 'one administrative 
entity' for all 6.5 million ethnic Tibetans means 
breaking up Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan 
provinces, doing ethnic re-engineering, if not 
'cleansing', and causing enormous disruption and 
damage to China's society and political system. 
This demand too is ruled out, as any comparable 
demand to break up States in India would be.

Multi-ethnic India is no stranger to such 
challenges to its territorial integrity: just 
consider the armed insurgency challenges, in some 
cases with external fuelling, in Jammu & Kashmir 
and in several parts of the North-East. Although 
the United Progressive Alliance government has 
made some statements about the Tibet incidents 
that hew close to the Washington line, it will be 
pleased that the studied official Chinese 
response has been to highlight India's "clear and 
consistent" stand on the status of Tibet as part 
of the People's Republic of China. New Delhi has 
allowed too much latitude to the Dalai Lama and 
the Tibetan discontents for their political 
activities on Indian soil, which go against the 
stand that they are not allowed "to engage in 
anti-China political activities in India," a 
principle reaffirmed by External Affairs Minister 
Pranab Mukherjee in Washington on March 24. The 
time has come for India to use the leverage that 
comes with hosting the Dalai Lama and his 
followers since 1959 to persuade or pressure him 
to get real about the future of Tibet - and 
engage in a sincere dialogue with Beijing to find 
a reasonable, just, and sustainable political 
solution within the framework of one China.

o o o

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, THE HINDU

April 10, 2008

Tibet issue

The Hindu's bias in favour of the Chinese 
Government in its editorial on Tibet (March 28, 
2008 [read March 26, 2008]) is dismaying. The 
reasons behind the recent demonstrations by 
Tibetans are transparent. You speak of sustained 
growth, omitting the fact that Han Chinese 
control the economy, party and government. 
Impartial observers have documented the onslaught 
on natural resources, the repression of Buddhism, 
the enforced denunciations of the Dalai Lama. The 
subjugation of Tibet is most evident in 
re-settlement policy.

In 1952, Chairman Mao complained that there were 
"hardly any Han in Tibet." By 1953, there were 
100,000 Chinese in the province of Qinghai, the 
renamed eastern Tibetan province of Amdo. In 
1985, there were 2.5 million Chinese and 750,000 
Tibetans in Qinghai. By the 2000 census, only 20 
per cent of Qinghai's population was Tibetan.

This demographic engineering undermines the 
comparison you draw between Tibet and Kashmir. 
Right-wing groups in India have long demanded the 
re-settlement of the Kashmir Valley. However, 
Article 370 disallows non-state subjects from 
buying land; and it is to allay Kashmiri 
anxieties that New Delhi has not granted autonomy 
or separate statehood for Ladakh and Jammu.

Beijing's abusive denunciations of the Dalai Lama 
and its stonewalling of his proposals make it 
difficult to accept their sincerity. A just 
solution "within the framework of one China" is 
precisely what the Dalai Lama has pursued.

Sonia Jabbar, Ramachandra Guha, Mukul Kesavan, 
Madhu Sarin, Jyotirmaya Sharma, Dilip Simeon, 
Tenzin Sonam, & Shashi Tharoor

______



[8] Announcements:

(i)

SAHMAT
8, Vithalbhai Patel House, Rafi Marg
New Delhi-110001
Telephone-23711276/ 23351424
e-mail-sahmat at vsnl.com
10.4.2008

Dear Friend

This is a reminder of the programme on 12th April 
- Safdar's Birth Anniversary that is being 
observed as the

20th National Street Theatre Day.

The programme begins on Saturday the 12th of 
April at 4.45 pm at Safdar Hashmi Marg, Mandi 
House

With the performance of a Street Play by Jan Natya Manch.

After the performance, there is a march from 
Safdar Hashmi Marg to Vithal Bhai Patel House, 
Rafi Marg.

At V.P House Lawns,
EXCERPTS FROM TWO PLAYS WILL BE STAGED

HALLA BOL

(It was the attack on Halla Bol at Sahibabad on 
1st January, 1989 that led to the fatal attack on 
Safdar)

And

MOTE RAM KA SATYAGRAH

Adapted jointly by Habib Tanvir and Safdar

The performance of the excerpts will be followed 
by Sashi Kumar's film "Safdar".
Which was made following Safdar's death 20 years ago.
For the march, we are asking all participants to 
carry photographs taken by them or selected by 
them on issues that engaged Safdar and informed 
both his creative and political work.

The photographs could be on

     * your  experience of the struggle and the 
fight for survival in today's India, particularly 
of the marginalized
     * the condition of the working class and their struggles,
     * the poor,
     * working women,
     * slum dwellers,
     * issues of illiteracy,
     * child labour
     * hunger,
     * demolitions of slum clusters,
     * closure of factories,
     * peasants suicides,
     * destruction of heritage and environment
     * the maddening construction boom,
     * the rise of consumerist culture hand in 
hand with the unbridled rise of communal fascism,
     * the ever increasing attacks on creative 
freedom and the right to dissent at the hands of 
Vigilante bands and the so called Moral police.


Please bring a laminated print at least 11" X 14" 
or larger. Preferably a title and the name of the 
photographer should be on it. Carry the image 
with you in public procession. All the images 
will be displayed as in informal street 
exhibition at the end of the procession.

20 YEARS OF
SAHMAT

  20 YEARS OF
NATIONAL STREET THEATRE DAY

35 YEARS OF
JANA NATYA MANCH


---


(ii)

It is our pleasure to inform you of the upcoming 
'Sixth Annual Winter Course on Forced Migration' 
organised by Calcutta Research Group, certified 
by the UNHCR and supported by the Government of 
Finland and the Brookings Institution. Developed 
through last few years as a programme on human 
rights and peace education, the course has gained 
recognition in the region of

South Asia as one of the most well known 
educational programmes on issues of rights and 
justice relating to the victims of forced 
migration. The winter course is aimed at scholars 
and educationists working on issues of rights and 
justice, functionaries of humanitarian 
organisations, national human rights 
institutions, peace studies scholars and 
activists, and minority groups, refugee 
communities, and women's rights activists. The 
course includes *a 15-day orientation course* on 
Forced Migration to be held in Kolkata, India 
(1-15 December 2008) and also will be preceded by 
a two and a half month long programme of distance 
education.

*We are enclosing the full description of the course and application
procedure. Application forms are available online at
www.mcrg.ac.in
and the application deadline is 31 May 2008.

**
Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group
GC 45 Sector III First Floor
Salt Lake
Kolkata -700106
Phone no : 23370408
Fax No : 23371523
Website: www.mcrg.ac.in


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Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
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